SHANGHAI, Aug 8 (SMM) – China imported 91.02 million mt of iron ores and concentrates in July, up 15.84 million mt, or 21.1% from June and 1.06 million mt from July 2018, showed SMM calculations based on data from China Customs on Thursday August 8.

This created a smaller year-over-year decline in year-to-date volumes. Iron ore imports in the first seven months of the year amounted to 591.49 million mt, down 4.7% from the same period last year, compared to a drop 5.9% for January-June.

Customs data also showed that China’s exports of steel product came in at 5.57 million mt last month, up 264,000 mt from a month ago but down 5.4% from a year ago.

Exports of steel products in January-July came in at 39.97 million mt, down 2.9% year on year.

Imports of steel products shrank 103,000 mt month on month to 842,000 mt in July. This brought imports in January-July to 6.66 million mt, down 13.4% from the same period last year.